Saturday, the No. 9 Ole Miss Rebels will play the No. 13 Missouri Tigers at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Ole Miss is coming off a 52-17 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores. In that game, Rebels defensive back Edwin Joseph Jr. went down with a high ankle sprain late in the third quarter.
Yesterday, Joseph underwent a tightrope procedure on his ankle, which is expected to keep him out at least through the games against Missouri and Texas.
With Joseph out, Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding is going to need to turn to depth to fill his role in the defense.
Who Can Step Up for Joseph?
Joseph plays a pivotal role in Ole Miss' defense. He's taken snaps at safety, nickel cornerback and boundary cornerback.
On Ole Miss' depth chart, safety Nick Cull is listed as the backup to Joseph for the nickel cornerback role. Cull has two interceptions this season, the most for the Rebels. His interceptions came against Charlotte and late in the game against Vanderbilt.
Safety Sharif Denson also could pick up some of the slack with the absence of Joseph, but he's likely to remain at safety for most of his snaps.
As for who fills Joseph's snaps at safety, Golding is likely to turn to one of Joenel Aguero, Ladarian Clardy and Anthony Robinson III, or use a rotation of the three.
Aguero is the highest-profile of the three safeties. Aguero is a former five-star prospect and was a three-star transfer from Georgia last offseason. However, the most noise he's made this season was getting ejected from the game in the loss to Florida for a targeting penalty against Florida wide receiver Bailey Stockton.
Clardy and Robinson have been in Ole Miss' program longer, with the sophomore and junior safeties both committing to Ole Miss out of high school. Clardy is the one to watch among those two, considering he got legitimate defensive snaps in last season's College Football Playoff as a true freshman.
Lastly, Joseph had played snaps as a boundary cornerback for the Rebels. Ole Miss will hope Antonio Kite, Jaylon Braxton and Jayln Crawford will be able to maintain their level of play, considering they are the three main players on the outside.
Four-star true freshman cornerback could fill in as the fourth boundary corner for the Rebels. Barney's been looking for a chance to showcase his talent, but has been buried behind players like Joseph.
Now that there's a path to playing time, Pete Golding will have to turn to one of these players or another depth piece on Ole Miss' defense to take over the roles of one of Golding's most trusted players.
With a motivated Missouri team, led by star quarterback and former Rebel Austin Simmons, coming to Oxford Saturday, whichever defensive backs step into bigger roles will face a sink-or-swim environment immediately.
Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news.
Add us as a preferred source on Google